Friday, August 3, 2012

SOS: Still On Schedule?

We've decided that the best operating mode for weekday work is Divide & Conquer, so Kirk and Wally split up the final script and cranked out some sweet storyboards by mid-week. With those in place, our main roles filled, and a handful of locations secured, we were on track to begin shooting by Friday.

Of course, with our confidence high, it was time to be dealt our first major setback--the actor playing the main character would be unavailable from Friday through Sunday, our most important block of shooting time. It's mostly just bad luck, though we may have been able to avoid this by casting a wider net much sooner for potential actors in the first place with a clear communication about the unique urgency of the project and the need for flexible availability. I am mostly to blame for dragging my feet on this because I was initially pushing for a production without having to use actors at all.

So, instead of freaking out, we quickly reviewed our options:

Delay shooting until he becomes available.

Swap the male and female roles.

Have one of us play the role ourselves.

Recast.

Being this is our first production together, and not necessarily knowing how long production and post-production will take us, we decided that waiting too long would put the final deadline in jeopardy. Swapping the male and female roles would require a rewrite of the script and storyboards--not a real big deal--but our main female actor was likewise unavailable for this weekend block. Playing the role ourselves would then put a bit of a strain on our limited production crew, though as a last resort, Kirk stepped up and volunteered for the task.

The best option seemed to be recasting the role with the most available person of any gender. Amazingly, by the next morning, we found a replacement (who we'll tell you about once he signs his life name on the contract) and our shooting schedule was back on with only one day of lost time. His first day with us will be quite an adventure as our first two locations are nearly 100 miles apart. We will also be racing against the weather as thunderstorms are being predicted for the end of the day and all our Saturday shots will take place outside.